Roy Herbert’s book entitled Introducing Anglican Beliefs was first published in 1962. The third edition of 1965 is used in this case study. This book was intended to state “the official teaching of the Church of England” (Herbert, 1965: 4) and bears the commendation of Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Herbert, 1965: 2).

Herbert speaks of the sacraments as being signs which “are not only outward and visible” but as “effectual signs conveying to man God’s grace” such that God’s “grace is given through recognizable signs: the visible marks of the visible Church” (Herbert, 1965: 46).

When he speaks specifically of the Eucharist Herbert argues that “under the effectual signs of bread and wine our Lord is truly present” such that “the Sacrament of the Holy Communion proclaims and embodies his Presence” (Herbert, 1965: 59). In the Eucharist therefore:

“ … we take and break and bless bread; we pour and bless wine. We have given and acted. We receive back far more than we have given.

Under the Holy Spirit the bread becomes the gift of his Body; wine becomes his Blood. Not in any material sense but in the sense that now both elements are charged with spiritual significance for the faithful worshipper.” (Herbert, 1965: 60).

Clearly Herbert sees the signs as an effective means of God’s grace and the means by which Christ is present ‘under’ the signs as an embodied presence. The Holy Spirit provides the power for the bread to ‘become’ Christ’s body and the wine to ‘become’ Christ’s blood. Herbert’s eucharistic theology expresses a realist conception of presence where the sign is linked with the signified body and blood of Christ. It is in this sense that the bread and wine ‘become’ the body and blood of Christ. This is not in any material sense (that is, immoderate realism) but in a spiritual and real sense.

Herbert also speaks of the eucharistic sacrifice in a realist sense. Those who celebrate the Eucharist participate in Christ’s sacrifice “under the shadow of the Cross” where:

“Christ himself, the great High Priest, is the true Celebrant uniting his Church with him in the eternal pleading of his once-for-all Sacrifice. In him and through him we plead the Eucharistic Sacrifice. … we dare to identify ourselves with him and offer ourselves, our souls and bodies to the Father to undertake a life of Christlike sacrifice and service.” (Herbert, 1965: 64).

Herbert expresses a moderate realist theology of the Eucharist where signs (bread and wine and eucharistic sacrifice) are linked with the signified (the body and blood of Christ and the historic sacrifice). The signs are seen to be an effectual means of Christ’s presence and a pleading of the once and for all sacrifice of the cross. Immoderate notions are denied in that there is no fleshy or natural presence of Christ, but a real presence nonetheless, and in that there is no repetition of or addition to the sacrifice of Calvary. The real presence and the pleading of the sacrifice of which Herbert speaks demonstrate a linking of sign and signified, such that the sign instantiates the signified in a moderate realist manner.